Vanquished Iraqi Military Disbanded

SLOBODAN LEKIC

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, May 22, 2003

Associated Press Writer

The military that failed to protect Saddam Hussein's regime took its final fall Friday, as the American occupation force ordered the dismantling of the Iraqi army and the Republican Guard, to be replaced by a "New Iraqi Corps."

The security services and paramilitary groups that formed the pillars of Saddam's Iraq also were abolished by the decree issued by L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator.

The move leaves tens of thousands of professional soldiers out of work, their future uncertain as U.S. officials work to build a new army without Saddam supporters.

Also consigned to history was the Information Ministry, the regime's propaganda and media-control arm, which became infamous for denying American troops were in Baghdad when U.S. tanks could be seen and heard in the city center. The ministry had tightly controlled Iraq's media and the work of foreign journalists and was closely tied to Saddam.

"These actions are part of a robust campaign to show the Iraqi people that the Saddam regime is gone, and will never return," the United States said in a statement.

The announcement came days after the American authorities banned the Baath Party and dismissed its members from future public service. It reflects U.S. determination to squash the regime's remnants ahead of a conference of political, ethnic and religious groups that will pave the way for an interim government.

Like the Baath Party edict before it, Friday's decree was largely administrative. Iraq's military melted away in the wake of its defeat by the U.S.-led coalition, and today it no longer represents an organized force.

"This is not fair," said Col. Ra'ed Nouri Yacoub, a longtime radar technician in the Iraqi air force. "We do not know our future now, and we do not know any other work. We have served our country as soldiers for many years, and suddenly we are thrown out in the street."

"Most of the army officers have nothing to do with Saddam, but now everybody is punished," he said.

An organized military has not existed in actuality for weeks. On Friday, looters scoured the abandoned Defense Ministry complex in Baghdad. Another nearby military compound has been commandeered by the Iraqi Communist Party, while squatters live in the Land Forces Command complex.

Bremer also eradicated other "security institutions which constituted and supported the most repressive activities of (the) regime."

The New Iraqi Corps, he said, would be "representative of all Iraqis" and not beholden to politics.

"We know that it's important to reorganize an Iraqi army in the short term and do it right away," said Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of American ground forces.

He said details about the force _ and how it would be armed _ had not been finalized, but he said it would not start out as large as its predecessor. In the past, U.S. officials have indicated it would include members of the army, navy and air force who were not compromised by their association to the Baath and who were not involved in criminal activities.

It is unclear how many will be left out of work.

"There is a large number of former soldiers who are unemployed now," McKiernan said. "That is a huge concern not only from the security standpoint but also from an economic standpoint."

Most of the armed forces' manpower consisted of conscripts who served between 18 months and 2 1/2 years. But an estimated 150,000 members were officers, noncommissioned officers, professional soldiers or civilians employed by the Defense Ministry.

Bremer said service personnel who were not involved in criminal acts or associated with the Baath will receive one month's severance pay. But officers with the rank of colonel or above will receive no benefits because they "will be presumed to be in the barred classes, unless they prove otherwise."

Former noncommissioned officers and officers from the three services demonstrated this week in Baghdad, demanding back pay and benefits owed them since the regime collapsed April 9. They also demanded that nonpolitical personnel be considered for jobs in the new armed forces.

Once considered one of the world's largest and best-equipped armed forces, the Iraqi military was cut in half after the 1991 Gulf War, in which they were driven from Kuwait.

During the buildup to this year's war, American intelligence predicted the demoralized, 300,000-member army would not put up much of a fight. The air force, decimated since U.N. sanctions imposed in 1990, also was not expected to pose a threat.

But U.S. commanders believed the 80,000-man Republican Guard, a heavily armed force set up in 1980 to defend the regime, would fiercely defend Baghdad and other urban centers.

During the war, however, the main resistance came from paramilitary groups such as Saddam's Fedayeen and other irregulars, while the army and Republican Guard simply vanished or were brushed aside by coalition forces.